Moodie family

James Francis Melville "Frank" Moodie, 1878-1943, was born near Chesterville, Ontario and was educated at various technical schools. He came to Calgary in 1901 and had a jewelry/watch repair business while at the same time working on local ranches and studying the geology of the local area. Beginning in 1911 he developed the Rosedale Coal Mine in the Drumheller coal field, with the backing of Sir William Mackenzie and the Canadian Northern Railway. After the death of Mackenzie, Moodie turned his attention to the oil industry, first in the Coutts/Sweetgrass field and then in Turner Valley. He formed the Sentinel Oil Company and Anglo-Indian Oils. He married his cousin, Lucy Catherine Moodie, 1869-1965, in 1907 and they had four children, James Fife, 1908-1909, Margaret B.A. “Peggy” (Munn), 1909-1974, Norman Francis, 1911-1995, and Kenneth William Byron “Bill”, 1915-1942.

Lucy and her sisters, Margaret Amelia “Maggie” Moodie, 1865-1926, and Marion Elizabeth Moodie, 1867-1958, were born in Quebec City and moved to Alberta in 1891 with their parents Walter and Janet E. Johnson Moodie to join their brother Walter Hill Moodie, 1871-1955, at the Glenbow Ranch northwest of Calgary. Lucy trained as a teacher in Regina and taught in Calgary from 1898 until she retired in 1922, mainly at Central High School. She moved to Montreal where she died in 1926. Marion trained as a nurse at the Calgary General Hospital from 1895 to 1898, and spent ten years as a hospital and private nurse in Calgary and Frank, Alberta. During the First World War she served as a nursing sister and was matron of the Red Cross Convalescent Hospital at Ogden from 1917 to 1919. She was in charge of the Ninette Sanatorium in Manitoba from 1920 to 1926 and then moved to Montreal to care for an elderly relative. She returned to Calgary in 1951 where she died in 1958. A collection of her poetry was published called Songs of the West and some of her poems were set to music by Clifford Higgin. She also painted and collected, studied and drew botanical specimens, many of which she donated to natural history collections across North America.

For further information see Feasting on Misfortune: journeys of the human spirit in Alberta's past / David C. Jones. -- Edmonton : University of Alberta Press, 1998. See also Catherine Munn Smith's article, "J. Frank Moodie: The Man and the Mine" in Alberta History, vol. 48, no. 2 (Spring 2000), p. 2-9.

For further information see Catherine Munn Smith's article "Marion Moodie : From Proper Lady to New Woman" in Alberta History. -- vol. 49, no.1 (Winter 2001), p. 9-15; and Beryl Hallworth's article "Miss Marion Moodie, 1867-1958 : Calgary's Pioneer Nurse and Botanist" in Fort Calgary Quarterly. -- vol. 6, no. 1/2 (1986), p. 2-7.